User blog:Dio Buccaneer/Breakdown Analysis by Dio Buccaneer - Muzaka 's leadership failings
Ahoy my Noble readers! I am Dio Buccaneer and I welcome you to the Breakdown Analysis blog, where we analyse stuff about the world of Noblesse. These blogs are meant to improve our knowledge and help grow the wiki as well as our understanding in all things Noblesse. As I said in the previous analysis, today we will analyse what makes Muzaka less than ideal as a leader. Now you say "We already went over that" and you are right but now I will make it an analytical rant (I do not see how an article on Muzaka cannot have rant-like qualities on its transcript after it goes on for a while) rather than the throwing-points-on-the-wall rant it was. Expect many parts to be lifted from there. Also I like this format better as it has less distractions. Plus I think this way we will see the things that escaped us the first time around. Let us break down this bugger: The flaws: Muzaka had many things you could point at his term of service that made him an ill-fitting ruler. He always traveled the world rather than lead his people,he always criticized the things that happened in his absense when they would not have happen if he had been there, he did not listen to the wishes of his people and when he did, he never stated the exact reason why they could not attack the Nobles (the Noblesse and the Clan Leaders being stronger than they thought) and rather than help his people pursue something else other than fighting when he told them not to kill humans or Nobles (like bringing the children books or taking them to see the theater or any other thing that could cultivate interest), he just forbade things and left like always. Ok sure, the human arts were not as developed but there were stories like the Iliad that could capture attention (it is a war story but babysteps). If he wanted his people to be less warlike he could have made the highest positions earned with more than just physical prowess as he had the power and, at the start, influence to make it happen. He had many options and he chose the "hands off and hope for the best" type of approach. As a family man: While that might seem irrelevant to his failures as a Lord, his failures as a family man are a microcosm of why his reign failed. He neglected his human mate causing her to die when if he had her with him, she would be fine (the werewolves would not have touched her without risking certain death and if she were among them they would be the only suspects as humans would have to go through them to hurt her in the first place). Then when his daughter was in his care he did not teach her how to fight (cause if you do not know how to fight, you won't have to fight, right?), did not tell her he was her father with the only reasons I can think off is shame (bullcrap) and him wanting to travel without her expecting him to be there for her (HOLY IRRESPONSIBILITY BATMAN!). I mean who the hell does she think he is? Her parent or something? OH WAIT! HE IS! And then she get's killed which he could have prevented by either being there or having trained her instead of going on travels and respecting illogical wishes of a woman who he allowed to die in the first place! And then he goes on revenge against humans when he did everything in his power to allow all those things to happen! In fact let 's make a conga line of all those cases: He neglects his mate and she dies, he neglects his people and they want to get rid off him, he neglects his daughter and his people kill her to get rid off him. After that, he get 's all emotional over her dying when he put no effort to prevent her from doing so as if he had a right to get upset over things not going his way while he did not oversee any of them. And he nearly gets his best friend killed in the process. "Never my fault" to the extreme if you ask me. Maduke and Muzaka: The head of of the Werewolf society is the Werewolf Lord. That much is certain. Now what happens when the head leaves to go for golfing? ALL THE TIME!!!! Well, then the Werewolves are going to be seduced by the good talker that speaks to their minds (even if he has only his own gain in mind) but who cares as that guy is at least there for them. And look!! He comes with new powers too. Oh goody! You can see where the Werewolves are comming from. Let us see this from a Werewolf (Warrior as it is the only that counts for them)'s point of view: "There is that guy that is stationary, gives gifts, does not criticise your actions against humans, does not kill you over them, is 100% on your side and only demands loyalty and doing your job. The better choice indeed. Also some sacrifices are needed for progress even among our own so who cares if a few of us die? It is worth it! Muzaka on the other hand was on vacation for half his reign, had an heir with a human, killed our kind for attacking those humans who were enemies to begin with and allowed Nobles to impose their will over us. And now he comes back, a generation later and acts as if he is entitled to more than a punch in the face." From the Werewolf (Warrior) 's point of view, Maduke is a clear winner on this one. Muzaka might have had a good heart but since he was never there, the Warriors looked only to Maduke for leadership allowing him power and influence that he should not have. From a character influence standpoint: To understand Muzaka you need to understand what influenced him as a character. Let me ask you this: Apart from his lack of leadership qualities, what flaws does Muzaka have? Exactly: almost NONE! There are some but it all comes down to being bad at the job in which he has to watch, lead, teach and govern. He is considerate of his friend Rai, he was willing to have humans in his circle even when his kind looks down upon us and even he had a genocidal rampage but must have realised that if he is being like that when humans are willing to accept him and treat his mind, when his kind was chasing him and he had no home, he would be a big hypocrite. He even spares those that come after him. He also takes shit from no one when they do him wrong. He is also very handsome and masculine. Perfect Gary Stu material if you remove his lack of leadership qualities. As you should know Muzaka is very rich in Greek influence (even his name sounds like mousaka which is a type of Greek food) and he seems to be based in the concept of a "Greek Hero". Werewolves and their lore were based on Lycaon, king of Arcadia who was a bad ruler that tried to show his people that Zeus was a fake god by feeding him Lycaon's own son and have him guess what he just ate. Zeus saw through that and for his heinous murder and hubris, cursed him to become a beast that looked like both man and wolf. A parallel could be drawn between the two rulers who did a bad job at running a kingdom, had beast-like characteristics and paid for their acts. The difference is that while both were selfish (Lycaon trying to disguise his incompetense and Muzaka getting more free time than he should have) Muzaka was in the end benevolent unlike Lycaon. As painful as his flaws are they do still fall under the umbrella of a Greek Hero as the term refered to idividuals of great importance with extraordinary talents and strengths but also crippling flaws that they need to overcome in order to be happy. You could say that their collective moral was that not even the best were perfect or without undeniable flaws. The challenge lies in overcoming them. Why was he chosen in the first place: Muzaka was not meant to be someone with responsibility of more than himself and his power granted him responsibility in spades. He is the kind who might have become the Lord not because he wanted to make things better but just because it was a chalenge to overcome or because he wanted no one telling him what to do. Otherwise, it might be that every Werewolf strives for the position of the Lord (even the ones who do not care for it) and one who had neither the wisdom nor the intelect and genre savvy just happened to be the most powerful and did not know what to do after he achieved it. A level of insight is required for such things and just doing your best does not mean you are doing enough for such a high position. Delusions: AAAH yes, the best for last. His greatest flaw is one that needs its own paragraph as it would overtake every other. Muzaka seems to live in his own little reality where as long as he is well meaning, he can get away with murder, go into vacation more often than going to work and still expect things done his way, walk out on others and not expect bad things to come, thinking he is being justified to do the worst because he is angry rather than see what his blame on things going wrong was, think he still is the one his people look up to after all that and paradoxically does not act as one would expect from someone who thinks of himself that way. Can you see what I meant when I said overtake? His delusions are that he lives in a much simpler world and that all people would see his actions from his point of view all the time rather than sit down and think whether or not he is on the right in the first place instead of assuming he is right by default. If he cannot see things from the eyes of his people, he should not be representing them. If he did not like what comes along with the position, he should have turned it down. Otherwise, he must have been under the delusion of it being easy being the Lord. He could have asked. The future of his arc: What Muzaka needs to do in order for his arc to come to a close is to accept that he did wrong and atone for his mistakes. It is clear to me that the closest parallel in Greek mythology (and in pretty much all fiction) is Herakles and thus I expect the story to go in a similar way. "Our hero who possesses great strength has made great sins without him willing to. Now at the court of a cowardly king who took his throne after the sins he committed, he must overcome trials that are meant to kill him and through them he must make things right for everyone with only himself limiting him". Does that sound familiar? As of now, the story arc awaits its climax where Herakles (here played by Muzaka) either overcomes the labors set by Eurystheus (here played by Maduke) with the current labor being the Cerberus (here played by Garda) that must not be killed yet can kill the hero. Now, Muzaka has two roads presented before him: overcome his own flaws like heroes such as Herakles and Odysseus (who had to overcome challenges based on his hubris and arrogance) or take the path of Jason (whose ungratefulness left him alone, miserable and broke) and Narkissus (who starved because of his self-love). That being said, Herakles demanded to atone for his sins while Muzaka when confronted with the assumption that he made M-21 get kidnapped by the Werewolves, tried to weasel out of the blame... The option is now in his hands and before we see what path he takes, I do not think we can have a full picture of him to judge him fairly and definitely. Even though he fell from the decision tree and hit every branch on the way down. In conclusion, many things are uncertain about where Muzaka 's story will take him but one thing is clear in my mind: Many werewolves will reconsider their candidancy for the Lord and they will most definitely raise their standards on who gets chosen. That would be the sensible thing to do. If they do neither, then let them be dumb at their own risk and they better not bother us with this whole world conquering thing at all. Alright guys, that was it. Remember to give your opinion on this article. In the next analysis we will be taking apart either Modification or the Werewolf Culture and Hierarchy and see what is going on with one of those. And remember...Live Nobly and take care, everyone! Category:Blog posts